A POLICE officer investigated for striking a woman as he tried to arrest her has died after suffering serious head injuries in Snowdonia.

Police Constable Anthony Mulhall was airlifted to hospital after being found by a walker in Cwm Bychan near Beddgelert.

PC Mulhall, of South Yorkshire Police, was taken by Sea King helicopter from RAF Valley to Ysbyty Gwynedd, Bangor, on Thursday morning.

He died in hospital on Friday after his condition deteriorated.

A post-mortem examination will be carried out later today but the death of the 42-year-old is not being treated as suspicious.

Mr Mulhall was reported missing from his home in the Rotherham area last Wednesday.

His car was found in the National Trust car park at Nantmor near Beddgelert by police officers on Thursday morning.

A South Yorkshire Police spokesman said: “A mountain rescue team located him on Thursday afternoon and airlifted him to hospital, where he was placed in intensive care. He died at 1.30pm on Friday.”

South Yorkshire Chief Constable Meredydd Hughes paid tribute to the officer, who had served with the force for 11 years.

Mr Hughes said: “This is terrible news and our condolences go out to his family.

“PC Mulhall was highly regarded and will be missed by all his colleagues and friends.”

His wife Letitia, 44 – also a police officer – was yesterday being comforted by friends at the couple’s homel near Rotherham.

The north-west Wales coroner has been informed of the death and an inquest is due to be opened in Caernarfon later today. The officer’s death comes just four months after Michael Todd, the chief constable of Greater Manchester Police, was found dead on Snowdon.

PC Mulhall was cleared of any wrongdoing regarding the arrest of black woman Toni Comer, 21, but was removed from front line duties.

The Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC) launched an investigation after Ms Comer complained she had been assaulted by two police officers during her arrest on suspicion of causing criminal damage to a car outside the Niche nightclub in Sheffield on July 30, 2006.

Speaking in March last year, Ms Comer said she believed her movements may have been caused by an epileptic fit.

But in December, the IPCC and the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) decided no South Yorkshire officer would be charged over the incident.

The commission also said there was no evidence of any racism in the police actions.

The CCTV footage showed Ms Comer and a police officer falling down a flight of stairs outside the nightclub in Sheffield, with the officer landing on top.

In a statement PC Mulhall said: “I struck her as hard as I was physically able in an attempt to deaden her arm in the bicep and upper shoulder area so that she could be restrained again.

“There was no visible effect and in the end I had to use brute force and both hands to bend her arm at the elbow to place her wrist in the cuff.”

Ms Comer later pleaded guilty to causing criminal damage and was given a conditional discharge and ordered to pay £250 compensation.

The IPCC investigation found the allegations that two officers assaulted Ms Comer were unsubstantiated and said PC Mulhall had used “justified and proportionate force” on someone who was actively resisting arrest.